A Q&A With New UConn Coach Paul Pasqualoni

So, let's do it with new UConn Coach Paul Pasqualoni who was gracious enough to give me some time in Storrs this morning.

It was a good time. Thanks Coach.

Anwyay, Pasqualoni covered a lot of ground today. We'll hit on a few things right now and blow the thing out for courant.com and the paper tomorrow.

Here's a few things the coach touched on today...

On his hiring and the reports of Mark Whipple as the frontrunner for the job...

"At that point in the hiring process I don't know anymore than you know at that point. All the candidates that were interviewed for this position were very, very good candidates so it was certainly feasible for any one of those guys to be hired. I don't think as a coach that bothers you. I wasn't necessarily...I had plenty of work to do where I was and was working at my job where I was so I think at that point you're doing the best you can do and you hope that things work out but in the end if they don't [hire you] I don't think you take it personal, you just keep working, keep doing your job so...that stuff didn't really distract me. I've been in this long enough to understand what that process and the procedures are, the university or a general manager or an owner go through in hiring a coach."

Were you surprised at the dustup that Robert Burton letter created?

"My only comment to you on that would be I think the Burton family has done an awful lot for this program and that they've helped the University of Connecticut come a long way very, very quickly and I have a lot of respect for what they've done for this program. That's my true feeling on it."

Did you have a good relationship with Burton while you were at Syracuse and his son Joe was playing for you?

"A good relationship, yes. All I'll say and I'll end it with this is, Joey - I had Joey Burton - was one heck of a kid who played a lot of football for us."

With the endorsement of the Connecticut high school coaches in tow do you feel or are you feeling any added pressure to keep top flight state players at home? Because that's the expectation of many now.

(he chuckles and smiles)

"Well...you're darned right, I mean, you know, you'd like to build a fence or a wall around the whole state. We certainly would but we're going to make absolutely every effort to do a good job in evaluating and making sure that the players from Connecticut and the Northeast that we can take, we're going to take. We're going to work hard at those relationships and trying to convince those players who are ultimately the guys you've got to convince to stay home and come to Connecticut that they can be everything they want to be as a student and athlete here. They want to have a degree from a meaningful university this is a great place - one of the great public schools in America. They want to be a first-round draft pick, they can do that here. They want to be an All-American they can do that here. They want to go the Senior Bowl they can do that from here. We're going to try to provide all those resources and support for the kids in the state and in the Northeast to build, to continue to build a great program here.

"That's what we're going to try to do here and we're going to try to do our very best at it."

"You've got quarterbacks who are not real mobile but they have a real, real good sense of being able to slide into soft areas, being able to avoid a rush, ok and being able to get the ball out. To be an effective quarterback in this day and age regardless if it's at this level or in the NFL, I don't think you have to necessarily be the fast, scrambling around guy. I think you can be pretty effective if you've got a sense of where the rush is coming from, where to move to, how quickly you can get the ball out and how accurate you can throw and what throws can you make. That's one style of guy and I think we have that style.

"Now, the other style to me is the guy who drops back to throw the ball and he's got a sense of the rush coming and he's more of the scrambling kind of guy. Some of those guys scramble and they're really effective avoiding the rush, re-setting themselves with the intention of the ball going down the field. So to me you've got that style of quarterback who's the scambler but he's going to scramble to throw the ball down the field. I think we have a chance to have that kind of guy.

"And then I think there's the other guy who scrambles and when he gets out of there he's looking to do one thing. He's looking to run. Now we might have that guy. The guy goes back, he's got every intention of running, here comes the rush, he's got good vision, he sees the soft spot, he starts to scramble and he's got no intention of throwing. He's got every intention of running. And there are those guys. In the National Football League we've got one of those guys and we had to play him twice last year [Michael Vick]. Now that's another guy.

"But I think you got one more guy, ok, and this guy [Aaron Rodgers] won the Super Bowl this year so I think you have to pay attention to who he is. To me, he's special because he's got this sense of moving in the pocket and scrambling and he's a little bit unique because he'll scramble to throw and he'll scramble to run. So he really drives you crazy because you don't know whether to stay back and you don't know whether to come up because he'll get byou either way and it just so happens we played against him, had him in the Pro Bowl last year and it kind of struck me, watching him practice how good he was at both. Usually, they're good at one or the other. We might have a chance to have that kind of guy or at least we know enough about him to maybe we can coach one of these guys to be that kind of guy you know what I'm sayin?

"Those quarterbacks, the scrambling kind of guy, they certainly can keep the plays alive, they certainly can be very, very productive. You have to be a little bit careful sometimes that they don't turn the ball over on you but to answer your question on the quarterback I just think you have to take what you have and you select a quarterback. To me, it's not based on anything other than production. It has to be based on production. It can't be based on height. It can't be based on 40-yard dash time. It's got to be based on production, how the kids in the huddle feel about him, his leadership. Can he get the ball down the field, can he finish the drive, all those things. At the end of the day it's based on production."

Can you talk about the running back situation, too? You're thin there and we're a little unclear where Lyle McCombs strands in all of this. Can you update us on both?

"Obviously this spring is going to be a big, big spring, obviously for a lot of areas and one of the big concerns on offense is obviously the tailback position. We're going to work as hard as we can work in that area, try to evaluate all the potential that we have there with the skill guys on the offensive side of the ball. We've got two guys coming in. One [Max DeLorenzo] is a downhill, can make yards after contact guy. The other guy [Deshon Foxx] is a little bit smaller, put his foot in the ground, make a cut, can bring the ball back, make people miss and outrun people because he's just got flat out excellent speed; so we're going to certainly get those guys in here this summer and get working on them and get them in the offseason program and we're going to work as hard as we can work through spring ball, through those 15 practices, to make sure we know exactly what we have on this team when spring practice ends from a tailback standpoint. I can't say right now because I don't know but we're going to give everybody that's there a shot.

"Obviously DJ {Shoemate] is a little bit of an older guy and coming from USC and has been in the position and started a game last year but I really don't know those guys and you know something, the way I look at it, I'm better off not knowing them so I can go out and make my own fair evaluations.

And on McCombs?

"Violation of team policy and we'll work our way through this semester and we'll see exactly what transpires as we go through the semester."

You mentioned all those styes of quarterbacks where does trick shot Johnny McEntee fall?

"I thought it was fun and entertaining. I think that in this day and age with technology the way it is, it turned out to be just something - and I think a lot of people had a lot of fun watching it. To be honest with ya, I wasnt even aware he was making a video. It would be a heck of a class project. I hope he gets some credit for it somewhere."

DC

Tags:

6 Comments

Desmond, have you heard anything definite about Matt Deiana coming to UConn? He is a little smaller than what you might want for a running back but UConn is thin at that position so he may help, if not this year then next. Will Clayton White be overseeing the kicking game? Will they be looking for one or two guys in the next recruiting class seeing as Teggart will be leaving? Have any high school kickers surfaced on UConn's radar?

Can you explain exactly who decides on what the uniforms look like each year? I assume it's the AD's job to hire the company and sign the contract but who actually sits down with them to decide what the uniform is going to look like? Does the Big East have any say in the matter?

Dez, it's good to have you back. I hope you enjoyed the last couple of weeks with your family. God knows it's been a crazy off season for UConn football. And it looks like weyuo has already given you a month's worth of assignments. Gotta give Zac a pop here. He did a nice job covering for you with the Robbie Frey and ECAC dinner stuff.

Very nice of Coach P to grant you this kind of access. I hope it's a precursor of allowing the media a lot more access. I'm hoping when Spring ball rolls around it's not treated as a matter of national security like it has been in the past. The Burton question needed to be asked, and Coach P answered it about as much as you could expect him to. It'll be interesting to see how the McCombs situation plays out. Crucial that he gets back for the spring.

Only 3 more weeks til spring ball. Curious to see how the field holds up after the hockey rink is taken down.

Yeah, the break was good. I know you'll appreciate this one...I took my daughter to see the Justin Bieber movie last week. Yes, with what sounded like about 100 girls screaming in the ears. It was fun.....I don't think the set up will be the same as when Edsall was here...Yes, the Burton question had to be asked and to his credit he didn't dodge it. He said all he was going to say about it. ...got some of the Q&A on blog, there will be more in the paper, just couldnt get it all in, but between the paper and blog we will, I had fun up there with him today. He's a very wise man C.

Dez came to Connecticut in 1991 and began covering high schools, then UConn football, the NFL, UConn basketball, Big East football, Big East basketball, national college football, national college basketball, the NBA. He has been a beat writer ... read more